


Breaking the Ice

by shadowtraveled (meteorfest)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 07:44:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2016714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteorfest/pseuds/shadowtraveled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy decides that the ice between him and Nico needs to be broken, but he's having trouble getting to understand the son of Hades. He decides to learn how to read the younger demigod. (First published December 2010)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaking the Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Moved from ff.net. I think I wrote this as a Christmas present during a Fic Exchange, but I don't remember. This was probably one of the first Percico fics I wrote, if not the actual first. Canon divergent in that it completely ignores Heroes of Olympus, set after The Last Olympian.

Percy Jackson was determined to break the ice between Nico di Angelo and himself. It wasn't that there was much between the two sons of the Big Three to break, but it was perhaps the hardest obstacle between them that the son of Poseidon needed to get through. Percy had been trying, for a long time, to melt the ice around Nico's heart, to get the younger demigod to finally warm back up to him.

Though Nico was no longer angry with Percy for Bianca's death and had even become a friend to him, the son of Hades was still quite distant with him. Annabeth and Grover had told him that the younger demigod was like that with everyone and, to an extent, that was true; Nico kept to himself for the most part, choosing only a select few to socialize with - if one could consider Nico's presence, quiet nods and blunt input as socializing.

Percy knew that, despite his friends' reassurance, Nico shielded himself from him in particular. He'd seen how Nico acted with Annabeth and Rachel, even with Travis and Connor (who even the aloof son of Hades couldn't avoid) and realized how cold the younger demigod acted with them was nowhere near how incredibly icy the son of Hades was with the son of Poseidon.

It was subtle, the differences in how Nico acted around Percy and, with eyes that saw too much, the older demigod had picked up on each sign. Though the younger teen acted casual around Percy, he had little tells that would clue the older demigod in to something that the son of Hades was hiding. Nico would watch Percy out of the corner of his eyes, rather than directly. He would sit further from the other demigod and he tensed up whenever the son of Poseidon tried to get closer or reach out to him. At first, Percy thought that the younger teen was just holding onto some lingering hatred towards him, a shred of anger for the promise that Percy had failed to keep.

Then Percy had learned to read Nico's eyes. One of the biggest changes in the younger demigod since Nico had learned his parentage and lost his sister was that he'd almost stopped expressing himself - he'd closed himself off, kept himself from showing his emotions, save for the occasional quirk of his lips when he was amused - except that his eyes showed more than perhaps Nico wanted. It was only by chance that Percy had caught the way Nico's eyes held so much.

It became sort of a game to Percy after the first time he noticed the way Nico's eyes lit up when the Stolls had played a particularly amused joke on the Aphrodite kids once. Any time he saw Nico, Percy would watch the son of Hades' eyes, note how the younger teen's dark irises - not quite brown and not quite green - would light up or darkened depending on who he was talking to and what about. With Annabeth, Nico's eyes stayed a neutral shade, slightly opaque as the daughter of Athena spoke of her plans for Olympus and tried to get Nico's input on a guest pavilion for his father. With Travis and Connor, the son of Hades would have a slight, enigmatic smirk over his lips, but his eyes would shine with genuine amusement - for even he couldn't escape their sense of humor.

Keeping in mind his observations, Percy approached Nico one day at free hour. It was a colder winter day, with a couple inches of snow over the grounds of the camp and more still falling. It was later in the afternoon and it was already getting dark, as it happened in December. The son of Hades was sitting on the steps of his cabin, almost hidden against the black obsidion of the cabin. If it weren't for the snow surrounding the younger demigod, the black-clad teen probably would have been harder to spot.

"Hey," Percy greeted, offering Nico a smile.

Predictably, Nico tensed up when Percy spoke. He didn't look up from where he was focusing on polishing the blade of his Stygian iron sword, running a cloth over the black metal. The silver skull ring he wore flashed in the remaining light of the day as Nico offered his own greeting, identical to Percy's.

"Mind if I sit?" Percy asked. When his friend just gave a shrug in response, the son of Poseidon crouched down and settled on the step next to Nico. He looked at the younger teen and just caught the way Nico's eyes just peeked towards him from under his uneven black bangs. It wasn't enough for Percy to catch anything in them, though. He wanted to be able to see Nico's eyes, try to figure out what the younger demigod was hiding, see if he could finally understand why the son of Hades was so distant with him, compared to everyone else.

"Is there something you want?" Nico asked, voice soft, but blunt.

Percy's ADHD-addled mind was quick to provide him with an equally blunt answer, but he bit the words back, not wanting to give away his intentions. "Just wanted to hang out," he answered. "We don't get to talk much."

Nico paused in his polishing and hefted his sword up to check his progress. Presumably, he found it satisfactory, for he dropped the sword again, sticking it into the frozen ground in front of him and propping his arm over the hand guard as he looked in Percy's direction. Those dark eyes of his were just visible under his bangs again, still not enough for Percy to read them. "What's to talk about?"

"Well," Percy started, running over some possible topics in his mind. "How's your dad?"

Nico's brow arched under his bangs, as if he didn't believe Percy had really come over just to ask about Hades. "He's busy, as usual," he replied, seeming to go along with the older demigod. "Persephone's there to give him a hand, so I'm up here."

"She still not warming up to you?"

Nico shook his head. "No, she's okay with me. But we have a silent rule that when she's there, I stay out of the way." He gave a shrug. "It's fine with me, really. Easier to just stay away from her so I don't wind up as a dandelion again."

Percy had always wanted to hear what had brought the goddess to turning her step-son into a dandelion to begin with, but if he so much as quipped his lips up when Nico mentioned it, the son of Hades would glare at him so fiercely that he swore he could feel the temperature around him drop a few degrees. So he let that matter go by and concentrated on just talking with Nico.

As they talked, Nico seemed to relax a bit, slowly easing more and more into the conversation. Though Nico acted differently around him, the younger demigod always seemed to talk more with Percy than anyone else. It was that fact that led the son of Poseidon to believe even more that Nico was hiding something. Percy concentrated on Nico's eyes as the son of Hades finally started to actually look at him. What he saw surprised him.

It was almost as if Nico had reverted back to that excitable younger version of himself, irises bright with the same enthusiam that the young teen had once had for the card game he'd long since abandoned. There was admiration in Nico's eyes, the same admiration that he'd held for Percy when the son of Poseidon had first rescued him and his sister from Dr. Thorn. There was more, though, amongst the enthusiasm and admiration and Percy couldn't quite put his finger on it.

As the darkness of evening continued to fall around the two sons of the Big Three, the torches set in front of the Hades cabin grew bright with green flames, casting an eerie glow on the white snow. The air got colder, but with the flames' brightness, came a sense of warmth that surrounded both Nico and Percy. In the light cast by the Greek fire torches, Nico's eyes shone more, looking even more like his old self. Percy knew that the son of Hades' eyes never shined like that with anyone else and that brought a smile to his lips.

"What?" Nico asked, catching the curve of Percy's lips. His eyes shifted, still shining, but with a curious light now. As inexpressive as his face usually was, the son of Hades seemed a little brighter in general, an almost genuine smile on his own face.

"I just can't figure you out," Percy told him. When Nico arched his brow again, the son of Poseidon continued. "You haven't been this open with me, or anyone, in a long time."

Nico gave a shrug and looked away from Percy, which disheartened the son of Poseidon. He'd thought he'd been making progress, getting closer to the younger demigod, but with that action, it seemed like the two of them were back at square one. It was a moment later that Nico leaned back, hands against the cold black stone behind him to brace himself up as the son of Hades let his head fall back to look up at the evening sky. The snow had stopped falling a while ago and the clouds had dispersed enough that Nico could just see a few stars.

"It's not like we've ever really talked," Nico admitted. He lifted his head to look at Percy again before giving a small, rather wistful smile that made him seem older than his thirteen years. "And things change, Percy. I'm not the little kid I used to be."

Not that Percy really needed that pointed out to him. Though Nico was still younger than him, the son of Hades had the maturity of someone older than him. Where he'd once been an excitable kid with a lot of (often irritating) questions and spouted more Mythomagic trivia than Percy ever cared to know, Nico was...so different now. He certainly didn't seem like a kid. Though quiet and withdrawn, Nico was confident, strong, at ease with who he was. He held himself differently, with a silent pride and certainty that reminded Percy strongly of the Lord of the Underworld.

"You know what, Percy?" Nico asked, suddenly breaking the silence that had fallen between the two of them. He looked directly at the older demigod, his dark eyes meeting Percy's bright sea-green ones. "It's because of you that I changed so much."

Well, that hardly seemed fair to Percy. He arched his own brow at the younger teen and was about to ask why Nico blamed him for that, but Nico shook his head and held up one hand to interrupt anything that he could say.

"It's not bad," he promised. That small smile, just a quip of his lips, was back on the son of Hades' face. "Actually, I have a lot to thank you for. You saved me and Bianca from Dr. Thorn and brought me here. Because of you, I know who I am. You're the one who helped save me from King Minos and got me to realize that I was wrong to blame you for what happened to my sister."

He moved a little closer to Percy, just a few inches. "You've been there for me. I was always the one running away. I ran away when you told me about Bianca. I ran away when you tried to keep me safe in the Labyrinth. I ran away from camp after the battle then, too. Even after we won the war, I was still running away."  
"You haven't been running away," Percy pointed out, brow still raised. Nico had occasionally left camp since his cabin had been built, but typically, that was because Hades called him to the Underworld for his assistance, giving his son tasks to help out. "Your dad - "

"I'm not talking about Father," Nico told Percy, giving a small roll of his eyes. It was probably one of the more direct expressions that Percy had ever seen him make. "I'm talking about you, Percy. I've been running away from you. I know you've noticed. Why else would you be right here?"

Percy gave an inward cheer of victory at finally getting an answer to the question that had, indeed, brought him to the son of Hades' step, but he was a little surprised that Nico was being so open and talkative right now. "You caught me," he admitted. "So now what?"

"Now, I'm going to do what I should have done months ago," Nico replied, that familiar confidence in his voice. "For once in my life, I'm not going to run away. I'm going to run forward."

That said, the younger teen moved closer in and, before Percy could ask what he was doing, Nico leaned in and pressed his lips against the son of Poseidon's. The kiss was everything that Nico was, quiet and confident, shadow soft, but strong. Percy didn't pull back from the kiss, though he was plenty surprised by it. It was different from any other kiss Percy had received - not that he'd been kissed that many times. Nico's lips were firm against his and, when Percy began to return the kiss and deepened it, he discovered that the younger demigod was much more dominant in kissing than he was, a giver and taker at the same time.

It was, Percy realized, one of the best kisses he'd ever received. When he pulled away from Nico, he ran his tongue over his lips, tasting just a hint of mulling spices, like the ones his mother put in the hot apple cider at Christmas. Somehow, the taste seemed rather perfect for the son of Hades. For a long moment, neither teen spoke, just taking the chance to catch their breath after taking it from each other. When Nico lifted his eyes to meet Percy's again, the son of Poseidon saw that way those dark orbs shone with the same confidence that Nico's kiss had held.

"So how long have you been waiting to do that?" Percy asked, a grin over his lips.

Nico matched that grin with his own, probably one of the widest and most sincere smiles he'd ever given in the time that Percy had known him. "Since the day you first became my hero."

Percy gave a laugh. "That is probably the sappiest thing a son of Hades has ever said."

"Tell anyone and you'll see what else I'll say," Nico told him, tone serious, but the smile still on his face. He stayed close to the older demigod, unwilling to back down after he'd run so far forward.

"Your secret's safe with me," Percy promised, bringing one hand up to cradle the back of Nico's head, fingers toying with the younger teen's soft black hair. He pulled Nico closer in, pausing only when the son of Hades' lips were a centimetre from his own. "So I broke the ice then?"

"There was never any ice to break," Nico replied. His eyes were dancing, bright and clear as he looked at Percy. "Not for you. I had to break my own ice."

Percy smiled and pulled Nico in to close the gap between their lips. He was glad to be Nico's hero.


End file.
